DAY 1 – KL - VIENTIANE – VANG VIENG

It's AIR ASIA time again! And the destination is - give me a "L"! give me a "A"! give me a "O" and "S" - LAOS !
Honestly speaking, never cross my mind that I wanted to travel to Laos. Have you ever heard of anyone who’s been there before? Any interesting places in Laos that people keep talking about? I heard nothing.

One day, Miss Shane told us about the mystery trip that she planned as her b’day and she bringing me and my sis (how generous!). Thinking why you don’t have friends like this around you and feel envy? Muahahaha ~ ~ you should.
Thank you Shane for sponsored the flights ticket. Love ~ ~ you ~ ~! :P Nothing excite me more than a free trip. Well not really 100% free as I have to pay for my accommodation and food :P But the offer is good enough.

But the destination didn’t kept as secret for too long. As we need to plan our trip together. Need to know what to bring, where to stay, how to go, what to see….. :) When she reveals her destination I was like, ok, never been there before. Let’s go explore!Due to time constrain, we decided to travel to Vang Vieng only, her original plan.
VANG VIENG HERE WE COME!

1st Day -18/7/2009 (Saturday)
Malaysia, KL - Laos, Vientiane

Take Air Asia from KL to Vientiane. Flight in the morning and reach Vientiane in early afternoon. Vientiane airport – Wattay airport is small, smaller than LCCT.Without wasting time, we went straight to travel agency by taxi which cost us total USD 6. Need to get bus ticket at 2pm to Vang Vieng. The taxi driver can speak a bit of English and being really nice and helpful to us. Leaving us a very good impression of Laos so far :)

On our way from airport to Travel Agency. Vientiane looks like a small city of Malacca to me. I was quite surprise as I never been to any country’s capital as “Ulu” as this. Or maybe that was only part of Vientiane :)

Cute guy alert! Cute guy alert! THE TRAVEL AGENCY we went has 3 very cute brothers. Uhh ~ ~ ~ I’m starting to like Laos.

Since we was there early, we explorer a bit of Vientiane during 2.30 hours. To our surprise, food in Laos is GOOD ~! There’re a lot of Chinese in Vientiane and speak Chinese. 1st meal we had is “cha guo” and it was good!After walking down the street, we stop by and old shop for baguette sandwich. I am not a huge fan for sandwich. But this sandwich is another 2 thumbs up! So far is all good with food except for it’s a bit pricy.

Since there was nothing much to see and buy. We decided go back to the Travel Agency and hang out there. At least they have air corn. The weather is too hot.

The journey to our double decker VIP bus (USD 7 per person) really driving me crazy. It’s all about waiting. We picked up by seong teow (same as Thailand) and was informed that suppose to send us to the bus station. However, the driver drops us at another side of the road with out telling us what’s going on. You see, the problem here is communication. Most local doesn’t speak English, so when we ask 1 question, there respond will be …………………… (crickets).

After waited for around 20-30 min under the big big sun. FINALY! Mini bus is here. Oh ~ ~ so we suppose to pick up by another mini bus to the bus station! Man~! Now I get it. :)
Oppss.. trouble again. Not enough seats in the mini van. Have to wait for it to come back for 2nd round :( Did I mention I am Asian and really don’t enjoy getting my skin tan?

Due to information we got from internet stated buses to Vang Vieng will not stop for toilet during the 2-3 hours trip (They must be joking!). We stop drinking water ½ hour before 2pm :( and only found out later -> BULL SHIT! The bus did stop for toilet. Which idiot spreading the wrong information on internet! Damn you!

*** ADVISE no 1. *************
When reach Vientiane try to exchange your USD to some “kip” (Laos money). Best price is in Vientiane and you might need kip to pay for your toilet entrance J Not worth it to pay using USD, they always keep the change if you pay USD.
*** END************************

When the bus left the city. The view is AMAZING! Green is every where. The rice field and small town along the road side, mountains and rivers. The rain drop adds some artistic value to the whole scenery. However 4 hours of same scenery -- I got bored :)

The journey to Vang Vieng took us 4 hours. It might be due to the rain. The journey was ok, the bus is quite comfy. Except for the funny smells from some backpacker who looks like never shower in ages, especially when they took off their shoes. Damn!

And Vang Vieng! Everyone can’t wait to leave the bus :) We continue our journey to look for our internet pre book room – USD 8 for normal fan room with WC for 3. We have to cross a very very muddy road to our hostel because of rain. It’s raining seasons, what to do. Found our hostel, put down the bags and straight down to the street for FOOD! To our surprise, food in Laos is really not bad. We love it!

Vang Vieng looks lonely and quiet that night, especially after the rain. There are some shops selling sandals and t-shirts, some restaurants which look really good from out site, bars and stall along the road side selling pancakes (a lot of them) :)

We got ourselves a day tour tomorrow from 9.30am to 5pm for USD20 per person. Going to do some cave and river tubing, wooohooo ~ ~ ~ !